Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the senator for her question. We make no secret of our desire to protect the jobs of hardworking people in this country. There are about 260 people who rely on the Heyfield mill for their jobs, and we in the National Party and the Liberal Party are going to stand up for their jobs. That is our job. That is why we are here. I do not know what the job of the Greens senators is in this place, but our job is trying to protect people's jobs, and that is what we will do.

Regarding the senator's question, there is a sustainable process to manage forestry in this country. It is called the regional forest agreements. When the Victorian government came to power they reduced the amount of area that Australian Sustainable Hardwoods could log from 155,000 cubic metres to 80,000 cubic metres. I am advised that they have further reduced that to 60,000 cubic metres for the next two years. That is what has put pressure on Australian Sustainable Hardwoods and put at risk these 260 jobs.

This week, the Deputy Prime Minister wrote to the Premier of Victoria asking him to work with the government on ways we could provide more forestry area to keep the mill open, to keep these jobs alive and to allow these people to continue to provide for their families in an environmentally sustainable way. The Deputy Prime Minister has suggested that some of the future years' logging areas could be brought forward so that we can at least help provide for production now. He has also suggested that we should look at elements of the informal reserve system on production forest land, which could be swapped for the many thousands of hectares of new buffer zone exclusions around colonies that have been introduced since—